Characterizing melanoma

Abstract

The presently disclosed subject matter provides methods of characterizing a melanoma in a subject by measuring amounts of one or more RNAs, miRNAs, and/or polypeptides present in cancer-derived microvesicles isolated from a biological sample from the subject.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for detecting miRNA in a subject suspected of having melanoma, comprising:
 (a) isolating miRNAs from extracellular melanoma-derived microvesicles contained in a sample from the subject suspected of having melanoma; and 
 (b) detecting miRNAs consisting of let-7i, let-7a, hsa-miR-23a, hsa-miR-191, hsa-miR-1228, and HSA-miR-1825 in the sample comprising capturing the microRNAs with polynucleotide probes that each selectively bind each of the microRNAs, yielding an expression profile of the miRNAs. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , and further comprising administering treatment for stage I melanoma to the subject. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , and further comprising contacting the two or more miRNAs from the extracellular melanoma-derived microvesicles with two oligonucleotide primers that hybridize to each of the two or more miRNAs in a polymerase chain reaction. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the extracellular melanoma-derived microvesicles are isolated in the sample from the subject by a method comprising a combination of ultrafiltration and ultracentrifugation.